Kitchen Confessions
by Alexandria Andrews
Summary: Minako/Makoto/Zoicite cooking for a dinner party. Sweet fluffy friendship piece.


The scent of onions wafted out of the kitchen and tickled the insides of Minako's nose. While onion wasn't one of her favorite scents, she could think of several other scents related to kitchens that she would never want to smell. Dusk was falling over the small Tokyo apartment. The hours of sunlight per day were much shorter now, as winter was quickly approaching. Which was why, despite the onion-y scent, Minako was glad for the impromptu dinner party Makoto had offered to throw.

Makoto was in the kitchen humming to herself as she sautéed onions. Her plan was to make oyakodon—and any meal worth its salt had an onion. Beside her, Zach was hacking apart a whole chicken with more grace than anyone would have thought. Zach had never really admitted it to his friends that he was actually quite accomplished in the kitchen, and preferred to keep it that way since most of his friends were distinctly inept at cooking. However, on the rare occasion he could avoid being seen, he and Makoto developed a clockwork system to preparing food for her dinner parties. It just happened that if someone else wandered in to the kitchen Zach would assume the role of annoying Makoto for food.

This particular evening only Minako had wandered over early. Every now and then Zach would peer over his shoulder to catch glimpses of Minako flipping through a fashion magazine on the couch. He was quite glad she wasn't paying much attention to what was going on in the kitchen.

"So how is it that you managed to learn to cook?" Makoto asked out of the blue. She turned to Zach, eyeing him with a look of curiosity and amusement.

"Shhh! Not so loud!" was his response. He clunked his knife down, not paying attention to where it landed. "I told you, I'm not going to end up as someone's kitchen bitch!"

Makoto couldn't help but laugh, and she dropped her spatula in the pan with a resounding clatter. "I know, I know! I know exactly what you mean!"

"You like it. You enjoy being their culinary slave." Zach looked down to his chicken carcass and pulled his knife out of the spine where it had embedded itself. "I don't know how you do it. Usagi is so demanding." Makoto had collapsed against the counter to wipe her eyes from her bout of laughter. She smiled at Zach, watching his look change from joking to contemplative as he carved another piece of meat off the breast of the chicken.

"I just like supporting my family," she said finally.

"Mako-chan!" Minako's voice drifted in from the living room. "Are you cooking onions or burning them?!" Makoto turned to the stove, just noticing the shriveling of the onions in the pan.

"Oh shit!" Both Makoto and Zach reached for the dial on the stove at the same time. Zach got there first and gave Makoto a smug look. Makoto's hand was still on top of his when Minako bounded through the door.

"Geeze, even I could cook like that—whoa. Am I missing something?" Zach turned around quickly and hid the knife behind his back. Makoto shoved him and dumped her onions in the pot of simmering dashi stock. Zach sighed and turned back to the chicken.

"No. You're not missing anything." He started hacking off the legs of the chicken.

"Nope. Zach just wanted to mutilate a dead animal," Makoto replied. She gave Minako a grin. The blonde was leaning on her hands watching the other two from the island counter. She merely looked back rather confused. Makoto's grin faded. "Wanna be helpful?"

"Aw, you're kicking me out already? I promise I won't chop my thumb off again." Minako pouted and stood up placing her hands flat on the counter.

"What? You chopped your thumb off?" Zach asked. He whipped around again, staring at Minako. "I've never noticed scars on your hand? Did you need a skin graft or something?"

"No," Makoto answered for her friend. "She chopped a carrot and tried to convince us that she chopped her thumb off."

"Oh." Hearing no gruesome story of finger separation, Zach turned back to his chicken and started working on sawing off a drumstick from the bird.

"Well, Usagi really made you guys think I cut it off. I only said I cut myself." Minako flipped her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. Makoto merely shook her head and smirked.

"In any case," Makoto continued. "Since you're in here, would you like to help?"

"Sure!" Minako exclaimed. Zach paused his sawing halfway through a leg and looked back at the two girls. Minako had an almost star struck look on her face. His gaze then drifted back to Makoto. A question spawned from sheer surprise and curiosity rose up to his throat, but he held it back, even though he wanted direly to ask. No one had told him Minako was a menace in the kitchen, and he didn't know the extent to which she wished she wasn't. Makoto walked across the kitchen to the refrigerator and started rifling through the crispers. Finally she pulled out a carton of eggs and set them down in front of Minako.

"Even you can't screw up beating eggs," Makoto said. Minako pouted at her, but knew that her friend was only teasing her. Makoto set a bowl down on the island and then a whisk. Minako took to cracking the eggs and dumping the contents of the shells into the bowl. The three lapsed into a comfortable silence as each person worked on their own aspect of the meal.

"So, I heard you went on a date with Ami-chan." Minako tried to sound that she was acting casual about the incident, but she really was dying to know every aspect from what color shoes Ami was wearing to How Zach felt after good byes were said. Makoto was quite curious herself, but she had not been able to pry any information out of either Zach or Ami. She took that to mean it hadn't gone so well. Zach felt both sets of the women's eyes on the back of his head. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to be annoyed or admit to how he felt about the whole thing.

Feeling that the pregnant pause in the conversation had gone on long enough, Minako stamped her foot. "Well?" she asked again impatiently. All pretense of it being a casual conversation flew out the window with her impatience.

"I don't think it's going to work out between us." Zach finally admitted. He finished carving the last piece of meat from the breast bone and put it on the platter.

"What? Why?" Makoto asked sincerely. She stopped stirring her sauce to look at him. Minako stopped whisking the eggs and set down the bowl. She bit her lip as she watched Zach's back sink after a deep sigh.

"I don't think she'll be able to handle the way my life is."

"What? That you're Jewish? Ami's not religious at all, that shouldn't be a problem." Minako said. "She's very open-hearted about things like that."

"Open _minded_, Minako." Makoto corrected her friend.

"No...I don't think that she'll be able to get over that I'm bi." He sighed again deeply. It was information he had wanted to share with his friends with a very long time; something he hadn't even told the guys yet—he was too afraid that that would fall into a gay panic if they found out. He still hadn't gotten over his slight crush on Kirk yet, either. That was not something he wanted to admit to.

"Bi?" Makoto asked. "I'm not sure I understand-"

"Wait, you're half gay?" Minako practically leapt over the island in excitement. Instead, she ran around it and slammed into Zach, latching on to his arm. "Will you go shopping with me?"

"Wow," Makoto said softly. She turned back to her sauce and started adding the chicken pieces. The others would be getting there shortly, and she wanted to have dinner ready to go when they got there. However, this admission from Zach had her reeling.

"Um…I guess," Zach said to Minako. "I'm probably the most useless gay friend you'll ever have though. I'm sure you'd get better fashion tips from Noah."

Minako waved her hand in dismissal. "That's just 'cuz he's loaded." Minako released her death grip on Zach's arm and put her hands on her hips. "That does explain why you always look so snazzy, though."

"I'm not _that_ gay. I'm not like singing Cher songs in panty hose or something. " He gestured to his rumbled shirt and pants. Zach figured that if he was really gay, he'd be wearing something designer. He only wore designer outfits for special occasions. And besides, he downright hated Cher's music. He always associated it with an extremely tall goat trying to sing.

"So…how does it work?" Makoto asked. She gave Zach a side long glance. "Like, are you attracted to women more, or have you been in a relationship with a guy, or…I dunno…" she trailed off, blushing slightly. "I guess I just don't understand how you can be both."

Zach coughed a little, as a cover for not responding immediately. "Typically, I'm more interested in women. I figured out that I might not be a normal guy when I started getting a little _too_ interested in women. Like…I started paying attention to fashion and enjoying certain kinds of entertainment more than other guys my age. I have been attracted to men. I've never been in a relationship with a guy. I've had crushes on guys, but never been intimate with one. I've had girlfriends, but I always was more interested in hanging out with girlfriends than with like…sex with them. It's weird, I know."

"We need to find you a boyfriend then," Minako said. "Are there any guys you're interested in right now?"

"No." Zach walked to the island and grabbed the bowl of eggs, and whipped them a few times for good measure. Minako and Makoto gave each other a pointed look.

"I think you're lying!" Minako's voice had a singsong quality to it as she teased him. Both girls watched Zach's face as a blush began to creep over his features. "Oh my God. Who is it? Is it someone we know?" Minako leaned in closer.

"I really don't want to talk about it," Zach said. "I know for a fact that he's not interested in me."

"So…if you like this guy…what about Ami? I mean, you've made us all think that you're interested in her." Makoto's grip on the spatula was tight enough to make her knuckles white. She was ready to do something drastic if Zach was going to hurt her friend. No matter how much she liked him.

"I like Ami! I really do. But she's so conservative. I don't think she'd handle this too well."

"I think you'd be surprised," Minako stated. "Ami…well, she's put up with us for all this time. She's got this deviant streak in her. We rarely see it, though."

"That sounds kinda kinky," Zach admitted. "So you guys think I have a chance with her?" He looked between Minako and Makoto and tugged on the hem of his shirt. Minako nodded enthusiastically and Makoto relaxed her grip on her spatula some.

"She likes you," Makoto said as she poured the eggs over the cooking chicken and sauce in the skillet. She turned the burner on under the rice and allowed it to heat up again. "And I'll punch in your nose if you spurn her."

"I just wanna see you get laid," Minako said. The other two looked at her in shock. "What?" she asked. "What? That's perfectly normal." Makoto smirked and shook her head. The meal was finally finished. And just in time, too. The door bell rang just as she turned off the burners on the stove. Minako went to get the door, but Zach grabbed her arm. She turned around and gave him a questioning look.

"Can I just ask that both of you guys just don't mention this?" He spoke quietly, but firmly. Minako and Makoto both nodded. "Thanks, I kinda…well, I haven't told anyone else this."

"No problem!" Minako said. "I'll keep your secret." She hugged Zach tightly quickly, before turning to get the door.

"She's so weird," Zach said and looked back to Makoto, who was splitting up the meal into several large bowls.

"Yeah. I can never figure out why, either." She sighed contentedly and started washing the dishes. "Who am I kidding though, we're all a little weird, right?" Two sets of green eyes locked as she said this. Zach smiled. Makoto's gaze told him that she not only accepted him, but understood. And it was a comforting feeling. They both turned as a troupe of people burst in through the door.

"HI!" was the resounding chorus that filled the small, cozy kitchen on the brisk autumn Tokyo night. It was going to be a great party.


End file.
